Health insurance is one of the cheapest ways of settling health bills. However, this service has eluded Nigerians as data show poor coverage of health insurance nationwide.
Though the country has poor coverage, at the state level, Ebonyi State had an impressive record in 2021, surpassing states like Lagos, with only Abuja performing better than it.
The latest Women and Men in Nigeria Statistical Report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that across various categories, health insurance coverage was less than three percent in 2021.
The data reveal that 2.8 percent of the women and 2.7 percent of the men were covered by health insurance nationwide that year. For children between five and17 years, the percentage coverage was 2.9, and 2.7 percent for those below five years.
Insurance coverage was high in urban areas than rural areas. Data show that 5.2 percent of the women in the urban areas were covered compared to the 0.8 percent in rural areas. For the men, it was 5.1 percent in urban areas as against 0.7 percent in rural areas.
More women were covered under the health insurance scheme than men as revealed by the data.
Health insurance across the states showed that more persons in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were covered than those in any other state. The FCT had 12.3 percent of women, 12.4 percent of men, 12.2 of children between 5-17 years of age, and 11.5 percent of children under five years of age covered,
Ebonyi State came second with 10.8 percent of its women, 2.8 percent of men, 11.2 percent of children from 5-17 years and 11.4 percent of those under five years of age covered by health insurance.
Lagos, Yobe and Bayelsa states ranked third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
At the bottom is Sokoto State with none of its women covered by health insurance. The state had 0.4 percent of its men under health insurance. For children in the state, only 0.8 percent of those between 5-17 years and 0.3 percent of those under five years were covered.
The states at the bottom 10 had less than 1.4 percent of population across all categories covered by health insurance.
Why is health insurance important?
Health insurance helps to reduce medical costs, making healthcare more affordable and accessible to many. It takes away the need for huge out-of-pocket expenditure on health by individuals and the government.
Incidentally, Nigeria has one of the highest out-of-pocket expenditure on health. Data from the World Bank show that the country’s percentage of out-of-pocket expenditure to total health expenditure was 74.68 percent in 2020.
How Ebonyi charts its path
Ebonyi State’s performance in attaining its health insurance coverage boils down to some steps taken by the government to achieve this. The government domesticated the health insurance law in the state in 2018, which set the pace for improved coverage.
The state government in 2019 took steps to make healthcare affordable for all. This was the case as the state offered a 10 percent subsidy on health insurance for its civil servants and their family members. This prompted more of its citizens to key into the health insurance scheme, making them pay less for heatth-related issues.
Also, to ensure state-wide coverage, the Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in the state were accredited to provide health insurance coverage for citizens at the grassroots. This was evidenced as the Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency (EBSHIA), in January 2021, carried out an audit of the accredited PHCs to verify the extent of health insurance services carried out by them.
A health expert, who lives in Enugu but hails from Ebonyi State, Dr Chima Ejembi, commended the government of the state for the feat, but urged it to expand the scheme to include more people.
“The government exists for the betterment of the people. So, I should be happy if the scheme is expanded to accommodate those in rural communities as well as the private sector. Any private firm willing to onboard its staff should be allowed to do so.”
He said the impact of the scheme would be evident on low mortality rate in five to 10 years’ time.
A health worker, Ms Chinyere Odua, said other states should borrow a leaf from Ebonyi and make health insurance compulsory.
“Heath insurance should be passed as law in every state. With the level of health problems and deaths in Nigeria, health insurance should be an emergency for every state,” she noted.